Saturday, July 30, 2011

When the netroots "hearts" Limbaugh

Rush Limbaugh has falsely suggested that there would be no adverse consequences for failing to raise the federal government's debt ceiling, claiming that because the government takes in enough revenue to pay interest on the debt, there is no danger of default.

Basically what he's saying is that default only applies if the United States doesn't/can't service our debt. Here's Limbaugh's words:

Truth is, we would only default if we don't service our debt. The cost of servicing the debt is 6 percent of the budget, and we have revenue coming in to do that. We do not need to raise the debt ceiling. There is no crisis. There is no Armageddon.

No, the Armageddon happens after we've serviced our debts and don't have the revenue to take care of all the other obligations the federal government has incurred...like Social Security, Medicare, military salaries, Veterans, federal contracts, etc.

Limbaugh would be tickled pink if we can't pay for those things because he thinks that's just the showdown we need to gut federal government spending.

First he quotes Jack Balkin saying that President Obama will use existing revenue to pay bondholders and from there we'll have a partial government shutdown on everything else. Then he says this:

Which would prevent a default, and which also would put additional pressure on Congress to raise the debt ceiling as the government goes into a widening shutdown. No Medicare payments. No help for military veterans. With Congress fully responsible until it does what it always had done until now...

In other words, there are options other than trillions in budget cuts during a deep recession, cutting Social Security, Medicare and/or Medicaid and/or other accessions to Republican demands. Keep that in mind, as this concocted "crisis" resolves itself, one way or another. The bottom line, according to Balkin, being that there will be no default. Because the president has no choice but to prevent one.

(emphasis mine)

See...no problem here folks. We'll just shut the entire federal government down and THAT will certainly force those nasty Republicans to do what we want them to do. Damn the hostages. We've got principles to fight over!

Funny thing is...that's just what the Republicans are hoping for. So the netroots once again finds itself aligned with the lunatics.

I suspect that what we're seeing is the fulfillment of that dream for both groups as the Republicans continue to stall and evade their responsibilities today. And through it all, I know that President Obama will continue to take these motherf*ckers on as the only adult in the room.